Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Harriet, a giant (vegetarian) Galapagos Land tortoise and the world's oldest living creature, celebrates her 175th birthday.

While Harriet is currently the oldest living being on earth, she isn't the oldest living animal ever.

According to the Guinness Book Of World Records, the oldest ever lived was a Madagascar radiated tortoise called Tui Malila presented to the Tongan royal family by Captain James Cook in the late 1700s, was either 188 or 192 when it died in 1965.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Donald Watson the founder of The Vegan Society and the man who created the word vegan has died a few months after his 95th Birthday.

Donald Watson 02/09/1910 - 16/11/2005

Donald died peacefully at his home in the Lake District whilst Janet his daughter and Joe Connolly, editor of Veg News, were at his side.

Joe said "Donald appeared to be totally at peace and was chatting philosophically and optimistically until shortly before he passed away"

Donald Watson had taken a back seat on running The Vegan Society shortly after he handed power over to committee fairly early on in it's history. He kept an eagle eye on everything that was going on however and watched with admiration as it grew into a worldwide movement with vegan societies in every corner of the world and exciting vegan alternatives for everything from Ice cream to caviar.

For his 95th birthday this year (2005) Donald spoke to millions of people via the BBC World Service.

"The genie is now out of the bottle and no one can ever put it back to the ignorant days before 1944, when this seed was planted by people full of hope. Now wherever Man lives he can have a vegan diet."

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Floodgates open to prosecute parents for feeding children certain diets following landmark Florida case.

Baby Woyah Andressohn died from an infection caused by a congenital defect which weakened her immune system.

The Andressohns were still found guilty of neglect despite even Prosecutor Walker admitting there was very little evidence to prove neglect.

Even as Judge Stanford Blake denied a motion to drop the neglect charges Friday afternoon, he told the attorneys in open court that were it not for evidence of growth charts showing that the Andressohn children were smaller than 97 percent of other children their age, he would have considered dismissing them.

This "evidence" however is rediculed in the face of statistics which show the vast majority of children in the Florida are overweight and obesity levels that the governor of Florida's Department of Health has described as an epidemic.

"Obesity-related health problems affect African Americans at rates substantially higher than non-minorities," Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said. "These startling statistics clearly show the need for a campaign to increase awareness among this impacted population. We want everyone to know the facts and understand that they can take action to improve their health."

Obesity rates have doubled among children and tripled among teenagers since 1980, with unhealthy diet and lack of exercise contributing to this epidemic. Obesity could soon overtake smoking as the leading killer of Americans.

Cultural factors, including traditional diets and exercise habits, can increase obesity among some minority groups, particularly African Americans and Hispanics. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), only about one-fourth of U.S. adults eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day. African Americans consume less than half the amount of vegetables that Caucasians consume.

According to the CDC:

More than half of African American and Hispanic women are obese.

One in four African American women over age 55 has diabetes.
2.7 million African Americans over age 20 have been diagnosed with diabetes. That accounts for 13 percent of all African Americans.

"The disturbing statistics about obesity-related illnesses in African Americans should serve as a wake-up call," said state Senator Anthony C. "Tony" Hill Sr., of Jacksonville. Hill, a member of the Florida Caucus of Black State Legislators and vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, helped initiate the public awareness campaign. Hill's Senate district includes Duval County, which has an African American population of more than 333,000.

If the Florida authorities are going to start prosecuting parents for not feeding their children their state recommended diet they have a big job ahead of them! The courts will be very busy.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Fast Food - Escape Fat Food Responsibility. Even if the fast food giants are found guilty and more evidence is provided that prove giant food companies knowingly encouraged customers to over eat (supersize me) cheap, unhealthy, sugar, fat and salt rich, highly calorofic, fat producing food, they are now protected by congress from being held responsible.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday to shield fast-food chains from lawsuits that blame them for making people fat.

Nicknamed the "cheeseburger bill," the measure stems from lawsuits accusing McDonald's of causing obesity in tens of thousands of children. The food industry has asked Congress and state legislatures to protect it from liability, and so far, 21 states have agreed.

The measure, which won approval on a 306-120 vote, would prevent class action lawsuits blaming restaurants and food companies for weight gain or obesity. The House passed a similar bill last year, but the Senate ran out of time to act.

Two-thirds of American adults are overweight, and nearly one-third are obese, while obesity among children and teenagers more than doubled in the past 30 years, according to government estimates.

Fast food giants and global food manufacturers are now free to take advantage of the nutritionally naive and let the health insurers and state health services pick up the tab for fast food irresponsibility and greed.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

The Vegan Society have named Arthur Ling, the founder of Plamil, as winner of the achievement category at the annual World Vegan Day Awards.

Adrian Ling, Arthur’s son and MD of Plamil said “It’s so sad that my father died before he received this award. He would have been so honoured that his achievements had been recognized by the organisation he’d helped to build. He’d won awards before but this one would have been very special to him”